


Estelle's Christmas

by Windian



Category: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: F/F, Festive fun, Humour, the whole cast ships it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-09 00:44:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5519228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windian/pseuds/Windian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a simple hypothesis with a logical conclusion. She might not care for it herself, but when Rita finds out Estelle loves the holidays she'll stop at nothing to make sure she has the best Christmas ever. </p><p>Considering she's never celebrated it before in her life, this formula turns out to be a little harder than Rita thought to untangle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Estelle's Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blehgah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blehgah/gifts).



> Some festive shenanigans with a ristelle twist for Blehgah. Merry Christmas and I hope you enjoy it! <3
> 
> -Nina x

It started with simple comment from Estelle.

"Ugh, Christmas? I've never got what the big deal was. It's just so tacky," Rita said, as they sat around the table for dinner.

"My, my. I never thought I heard anyone who disliked Christmas," Judith said.

"Well, I do. It's just pointless. All that time spent cooking and decorating, just for one day? It's dumb."

And then Estelle had taken her seat next to her at the table and said, "Ooh, are you talking about Christmas? I love it so much."

"Y-you do?"

"Oh, yes! Doing all the decorations is so fun, and Christmas dinner is delicious. In the palace, the whole thing was draped from head to toe, and on Christmas eve there's always a huge ball."

Estelle's face was lit up up like a Christmas tree as she talked, fingers pressed together, exuberation glowing out of her.

Rita couldn't look away.

"You love Christmas too, right Rita?" Estelle asked, suddenly turning those bright eyes and radiant smile on her. Rita felt her face burning. If Estelle's smile was the sun coming out, Rita regularly came down a case of heatstroke.

"Y-yeah. Sure!"

Judith chuckled. Rita could feel Raven's evil sadistic grin without even turning to look at him.

"I thought you said you didn't care for Christmas, Rita?" Yuri asked, trying very hard not to smile.

"Yeah, you just said how pointless and dumb it was," Karol pointed out. The little shit.

Estelle pressed a finger to her chin, puzzling this out.

"S-shut up! I love Christmas. The, uh, Christmas lights, and cakes, and those things you hang on the Christmas bush."

"You mean the Christmas tree?" Karol asked. Rita kicked him under the table. He yelped.

"That's what I said!" she exclaimed, cheeks red and puffed up as he withered under her glare. She swung round to face Estelle, breathless and flustered with the thought that _oh crap, what if she figures out I'm lying? What if she doesn't like me anymore? What if—_

"That's wonderful, Rita! Decorating the tree is my favourite thing, too," Estelle exclaimed, grabbing Rita by her hands and squeezing them tight. All the remaining blood in Rita's body rose to her face. "Will you help me decorate it?" Estelle asked.

"O-of course!" Rita asked. She didn't even listen to the insidious chuckling from around the table. She squeezed Estelle's hands, the blood rush making the world spin on its axis.

"Well, well. This should be fun," she heard Judith say.

* * *

She decided. For Estelle, this Christmas was going to be the best Christmas ever!

Exactly how she was going achieve this was… a little more difficult, considering she'd never celebrated Christmas in her life before. Not that the mages in Aspio didn't celebrate, but they were hardly going to invite that weird mage, were they? Not that Rita even cared, but it was going to make this whole _best Christmas ever_ thing rather more difficult…

* * *

Rita couldn't wait to see Estelle's face when she saw the Christmas tree. The thought of Estelle's face lit up with that incandescent smile would be worth all the sweat and blood it cost to saw down the tree in the forest and float it all the way back to her house. Getting in the front door was harder, and sure, a few branches might have got snapped off in the process, but it still looked pretty good. Of course, she probably should have thought of the _height_ issue before she blasted the tree down with a healthy serving of stalagmite magic. This she admitted. It just meant Rita was forced to lop off the final two foot of the tree, but, hey, who was gonna look up that far, anyway?

Rita dusted her hands and put them on her hips, gazing at her work. Even without the last two foot, the tree spanned two stories and touched the roof of her house. Nice.

She imagined Estelle's reaction when she walked in the door: "Oh, Rita, this is amazing! This is the best Christmas tree I've ever seen. And it must have been so heavy for you to bring this back, all on your own…"

Naturally, she'd wave this all off. Tell Estelle not to sweat it. Totally cool. Totally casual. "It was all worth it, to see your smile," she'd say—

So caught up in her daydream, Rita didn't hear Estelle when she actually came home, tailed by Yuri and Raven.

"Oh, goodness!" she said, staring at the tree that now took up a quarter of Rita's house.

Rita put her hands on her hips. "Pretty good, huh?"

"Why, yes. But…"

"But?"

Estelle inclined her head. "What is it?"

Rita's cool blasé vanished in a split second. "W-what is it?" she spluttered. "Can't you tell? It's a Christmas tree!"

Estelle pondered on Rita's words, eyes flicking back up the tree that very nearly poked out of Rita's chimney pot. "But…"

Raven burst into peals of dry laughter. "Another astounding conclusion from our genius mage."

"What?" Rita demanded, the hairs on her arms standing up defensively. What was wrong? Was it not big enough?

"Ah… Christmas trees are pine trees. This… is an Aspian juniper tree," Estelle said.

Rita turned to look at the juniper tree with its gnarled and twisted trunk and hardy leaves.

Right.

Rita's eyes were dead. "Five hours," she said, monotone. "Five hours I spent bringing it down and carrying it back here. I gave myself eight splinters. Everyone stared at me in town like I was a crazy woman."

…Actually, that probably explained that last one.

"Ah, but I still think it looks great, Rita!" Estelle said, very quickly.

"You're just saying that…" Rita muttered.

"No, really! Who says you have to have a pine tree, anyway? It's not like there's a rule. I bet it'll look great after we decorate it. Ooh. I can't wait to see what it'll look like!"

"A-are you sure?" Rita asked, heart starting to buoy at Estelle's bright-eyed enthusiasm.

"Yes!"

Rita distantly heard the snickering from behind her. And something that sounded a lot like, _love sure is blind._

* * *

"But… how do we reach to put the baubles on?" Estelle asked.

"Oh," said Rita.

The leaves on the tree were so high up that neither of them could reach. Rita ignored the laughter that seemed to be following them like a snickering poltergeist, as well as the desire to hurl a fireball in said ghost's face. Raven and Yuri had settled back on some books and had made content to watch the girls struggle. As Rita wobbled on a precarious book pile, Judith, Karol and Repede came to join them, watching them as though it was a comedy show, and Rita was the punch line.

Their friends roared with laughter as Rita's pile of books turned into a book slide and she fell face first into _A History of Blastia_. Estelle helped her up, and she yelled, "How about helping instead of just watching, idiots?"

"We wouldn't want to get in your way, ristelle," Yuri called.

"Oh! That gives me an idea," Estelle said, grabbing Rita by the hands. "We can use your magic to float."

"Right!" Estelle was so smart. She always had the best ideas!

Except that holding onto Estelle as well as the box of decorations- while she hung them with as much grace and delicacy as though she was knighting a noble- was more difficult than it looked. Especially when just touching Estelle made Rita feel like she was going to have a nosebleed.

One tangled string of lights later and Rita and Estelle were back on the ground, staring at the Christmas juniper tree. Which, although decorated, was now lying horizontal on her floor.

Estelle began: "Well, there's no _rule_ you have to stand it on its end—"

* * *

"Hm… this is starting to get ridiculous," said Yuri, as he saddled the bucking bronco with an additional carry case.

"I'm surprised, too. He really can carry a lot of luggage," said Judith, popping a handbag onto his tail.

"That too, but I was referring more to Rita and Estelle."

"It's nice to see them having so much fun together." Judith smiled, loading up bronco with a suitcase.

"It's definitely entertaining. But I was wondering if…"

"We should help them?" said Judith. "My, my, Yuri. I didn't realise you were such a romantic."

He chuckled. "If we don't do anything, they'll be at this forever. Give 'em another decade and maybe then they'll figure it out."

"So what are you suggesting?" she asked.

"Old Raven here might just have an idea."

Yuri looked up to see Raven standing over them, mistletoe in hand. His eyes went from the sprig, to Raven.

"I didn't know you felt that way about me," Yuri said.

With a sudden spring, the bucking bronco bucked, sending suitcases and luggage flying across the room.

"Goodness," said Judith.

* * *

Christmas dinner. There was no way she could mess this up, right? After all, she could cook (even if all everyone ever wanted was dumb sorbets after battle…)

Yes! This would be a cinch. The pots and pans were bubbling and she carefully moderated the heat of the tiny fireballs she used for cooking. The turkey was in the oven and she'd even cleared away her most dangerous alchemy experiments that clogged up her kitchen and bunged away her beakers. She whistled Jingle Bells as she measured out twenty centilitres of custard in a test tube and slammed the oven shut with her foot.

"Rita? Are you sure you don't want any help?" Estelle asked, poking her head over the ladder. Downstairs, everyone else was playing jenga and she heard a yell as Karol cried, _Repede! That's cheating!_

"Nah, you go downstairs and enjoy yourself. I've got this all under control," Rita said, stirring her cream sauce with confidence.

Estelle nodded in acquiescence. "Okay. It smells really good!"

The princess's head bobbed back down, and Rita's breath caught in her throat just thinking about how Estelle's eyes would glow when she saw the spread she'd put on. Even if she brought the wrong tree, and even if half the branches were kind of, sort bent after they knocked it over (she put it back up again!) this meal would make up for it. Even if she couldn't give Estelle palaces and balls, she could give her a feast worthy of royalty. Yes, this would be all worth it, for Estelle—

"Uh, hey. Genius mage, smells like something burning up there," Raven called.

"Oh no!"

So caught up in her daydream Rita had neglected to temper the flames of her fire, which had turned from small cooking flames into hot, burning love flames. With a _whooosh_ , they rose up and engulfed the hanging blastia formula tapestry. Rita yelled and started hitting it with a frying pan.

"Is everything all right up there?" Judith called up.

"It's— fine!" Rita gasped, smacking the flames, eyes watering at the ghastly smell that was coming from the oven.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come up and help?" asked Estelle.

"No!" Rita squeaked, before moderating her voice, "No, it's fine. Don't come up! Everything's— um— under control."

"It smells like something died up there…"

"Shut up Karol," she snapped, before she clicked her fingers and poured a healthy jug of magic water over her kitchen.

And then stared, dejected at the mess she'd made. Pots bubbled over and cream sauce curdled. Her parsnips smelled like they'd been through a dragon attack and…

…and it was nothing like she'd imagined for Estelle's Christmas.

A sob rising up in Rita's throat, she fled from the scene of festive devastation.

* * *

"Rita… there you are. Everyone's been looking for you for hours. What's wrong?

Rita lifted her head from her pillow when she heard Estelle's voice. She hovered by the doorway, concern pinched between her eyebrows.

"I ruined Christmas" she said, voice thick and hoarse from crying. "And after I worked so hard at everything. I just wanted for you to have a good time."

As she spoke Estelle approached the bedside. The mattress sunk as she took a seat beside her. "Ruined Christmas…?" she asked. "What are you talking about, Rita? This has been the best Christmas ever!"

Rita wiped away her tears with the back of her sleeve. "What? But you live in the palace! You told me about those amazing Christmas balls you used to hold."

Folding her hands on her lap, Estelle looked away. "Yes, but I had to spend the whole time talking to my horrible relatives and making sure my dress didn't get caught so I'd be presenting the right image as a royal candidate. The decorations looked great but I was never allowed to help put them up and it was… lonely." She smiled, distant, and she looked and felt so far away Rita pushed herself up to sit beside her. She offered her hand out to Estelle, and the princess squeezed it. And she smiled. "But for the first time this year I got to spent Christmas with my friends! My _friends_!" She relished the word, tasting it on her tongue as though it was a foreign and exotic jam. "I got to try all the things I'd only ever read in books. I got to play Christmas's party games with everybody, and help you decorate the tree. And most of all, I got to spend Christmas with you, Rita!"

Rita forgot about everything else. All she could feel was warmth filling her like liquid butterscotch and Estelle's hands holding hers tightly and _Estelle._

Estelle, looking up, intrigued.

Rita followed her gaze, and found, hung above their heads in a place she definitely didn't hang it in, a sprig of mistletoe.

" _Viscum album_ , a parasitic plant from the _Santalaceae_ family," Estelle said, from rote. "More commonly known as "mistletoe.""

Rita tried to reply, but all that left her lips was a loud squeak.

"It doesn't grow in the climate around Zaphias, but it has some interesting cultural background." She raised a finger. "Apparently if you're "caught under the mistletoe" with somebody you have to kiss them on the mouth. How fascinating."

"Yeah… fascinating…"

"Isn't it just?" Estelle said with gusto.

"Maybe we should…"

"Speak up a little please, Rita. I can't hear you." Estelle lent in a little closer.

"Maybeweshouldtryit," the words burst from Rita's lips, before she quickly amended, "I mean, just as an experiment! You know, as research!"

Estelle considered this, a thoughtful finger pressed to her chin while Rita's heart banged so hard against her ribcage she thought it was going to burst. "I'd love to research Christmas customs with you, Rita," she said at last, beaming.

_I can't believe this is happening._

Yet it was happening, and as Rita joined her lips with Estelle's, clutching at the material of her sleeves with trembling fingers, she felt so light-headed she thought she might pass out. But Estelle's lips were so soft, and as Rita pulled back a bright, white light filled her. Her face split into a grin, and she could feel the light glowing out of her, from her fingertips to the very ends of her toes.

Estelle was beaming back at her, cheeks dusted pink, and that same light was glowing out of her too.

But it still surprised Rita when the princess grabbed her and researched the crap out of her Christmas customs all over again. Fingers tangled in her hair, leaving tingling stardust snail trails over her scalp. Rita's head was spinning with a rush better than the best blastia formula breakthrough could bring.

And then there was loud laughter from the right. Which struck Rita as strange even then because all there was to the right was her cupboard. And unless she'd messed up a formula pretty specularly cupboards didn't usually chuckle.

There was a loud crash, and the cupboard doors exploded open, vomiting out Yuri, Raven, Karol, and Judith in a tangling, hysterical heap.

"Oh my goodness," said Estelle, colouring and covering her mouth in embarrassment.

"Researching… Christmas customs…" Raven was tangled up with Yuri, laughing his ass off. Even Repede was there, howling.

"You!" The word was a violent chemical reaction as Rita exploded to her feet.

She should have known.

Raven was still laughing as she conjured up a huge fireball, and sent it hurtling towards his face.

 


End file.
